Tangents and Vectors

An Idea Borrowed

Years ago on a radio program someone shared that they read a chapter in Proverbs every day. Since there are 31 chapters and the longest month has 31 days it allows you to read through Proverbs on a regular basis. I use it as the launch pad for my personal worship time and branch out from there. On this blog I will try to share some of the insights I have in the Word. I will try to organize them in the archive by reference.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Maybe You Don’t Deserve No Respect

(Proverbs 28:21 KJV) To have respect of persons is not good: for for a piece of bread that man will transgress.

God has no place for “respect (5234) of persons (6440)” (partiality NASB). We forget that this cuts both ways. The poor are not noble, but neither are the rich.

Being impartial is not the same thing as being indiscriminate. It used to be that discrimination was a valuable character trait. Thus you might have a discriminating palate. That meant you knew good food from greasy spoon productions. The word fell out of favor when it began to be modified by adjectives that changed the reasons for making choice, such as “racial discrimination.” Perhaps a more accurate phrase would have been “racial partiality.”

“Partiality” (5234/6440) infers that you are using personal standards to judge value. This is okay in choosing the restaurant you want to visit tonight. It is not acceptable in deciding who gets to live in your neighborhood. Discrimination is the legitimate decisions we make based on experience and wisdom. Thus it is wrong to exclude someone from your apartment because of skin color but right to refuse to rent to a pedophile.

So? There are reasons to make decisions. Make sure that you don’t judge people on grounds that are not Biblical. Let experience, interpreted by wisdom and led the by the Holy Spirit be your guide.

4 comments:

I would respectfully disagree with you on not renting due to personal "prejudices" being wrong. A person's property should be their own. They bought it, they pay taxes on it, they maintain it. It should be considered an obvious part of property rights. The owner's prejudices are, likely as not, based on past experience and concerns for protecting their property value. However, there should NOT be prejudice in public (government) services or access to government-owned properties, since they are paid for by the general public.

I think there is often confusion about prejudice. Opinions based on experience are not prejudice, they are wisdom. I think that is what you are saying. And I totally agree that a person should have the legal right to rent or not depending on their own standards.

The whole idea of all men being created equal is their standing before the law and government, not that we all are actually equal.

Followers

Bible Text

I prefer the NASB for my study but I will be using the KJV as the text I post. I do this because I do not understand the copyright restrictions. If I ever get a better grasp of the law I may change the text I list. We may be under grace rather than law, but others are not so free. My comments will try to make it clear what the differences are.

Greek and Hebrew

In the comments there will be reference to words and the original languages. Number in parenthesis, (1235), refer to the number from Strong's Numbering system.

An Invitation

The theme of this blog is devotional, worshipful, Biblical. I have a lot of ideas that won't fit in that frame so I have started another blog. It is called Medley of Worship.

You are invited to visit me there. It includes Bible and theology but also politics, education and anything else that comes to my mind.

About Me

I have been a serious follower of Jesus Christ since my senior year in high school. I am a Vietnam Veteran who came home more patriotic than I left. I am a graduate of Nazarene Theological Seminary and an ordained elder although I an not currently serving in a pastoral position. I have what I consider an orthodox faith set in the context of Wesley and Arminius. I share this so you will know where I am coming from as I look at the word.